When an Amber Alert was activated in late January after a Sunderland boy was reported missing, the Vermont State Police posted an alert on Facebook.

State Police Public Information Officer Stephanie Dasaro recalled the incident Wednesday, saying the Facebook post was shared at least 1,200 times in an hour. Within 12 hours, the post had reached 73,000 people.

Lee was later found with his mother — who police considered "unstable and volatile" at the time — in New Hampshire, where a person who had seen the Facebook post recognized the boy.

"We went back to our command staff and said, 'This is exactly why we do what we do. This isn't just for entertainment value,'" Dasaro said. "At the end of the day, success of social media is being able to solve crime."

State police are not alone in their use of social media. South Burlington and Williston fire departments have also hopped on social networks to better engage with communities, disseminate information and solve crime.

Dasaro and Williston barracks dispatch supervisor Rich Kelley are the primary users of the state police's Twitter and Facebook pages — which have gained a distinct voice due to Kelley's sense of humor, Dasaro said.

Kelley said he uses humor when appropriate to "get noticed" and build up the agency's audience in case an emergency, such as the Amber Alert, happens again.

This humor came into play Wednesday, when a truck — the third this summer — got stuck in Smuggler's Notch along Vermont 108.

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A tweet Wednesday from @VTStatePolice warns motorists to avoid Vermont 108, the Smugglers Notch road, after a tractor trailer tried to go through and got stuck.(Photo: RYAN MERCER/FREE PRESS)

The state police took to Twitter, where information is shared via 140-character "tweets." They also used a popular culture hashtag "#smh," which means "shaking my head." Hashtags allow Twitter users to sort trends and topics.

"It's not so we have something to entertain ourselves," Dasaro added. "It's really about trying to build an audience so in the event that something bad happens, we have that audience built in, so then they're there to hear."

Dasaro said the agency has asked troopers to take part in national tweet-a-thons, posting from where they might have stopped their cruisers or about their daily activities. This does not take the place of their duties in the event of an emergency, Dasaro said.

At all other times, Dasaro and Kelley gather information from troopers who are in the field to inform the public of what is happening or to engage the public in activities, such as "Where's the Cruiser." In that game, a photo of a Vermont State Police cruiser is posted on the agency's Facebook page, and followers are asked to guess where the cruiser might be.

"People don't really understand the day-to-day business of what we do," Dasaro said. "They see us on the road, or on car stops. They'll see us on TV, but they don't really understand what these guys do every day, day-in and day-out ... Law enforcement officers on the road are people."

Exposure and engagement

South Burlington Fire Department Capt. Sacha Lascala swiped through the department's official Twitter account Monday. He used his iPhone to look through previous posts and check how many followers the department had — 780 as of that afternoon.

Lascala said the department has become more serious about using social media, mostly Facebook and Twitter, over the past few years. He added Google Blogger to the reportiore more recently as a way to log and disseminate news releases.

Lascala splits social media duties with Senior Firefighter Roger Gosselin. Lascala said the department's eight firefighters have multiple duties, so posting on social media usually happens off the clock.

"That's one of the challenges with social media is if we catch a call right now, and I'm needed on the call, I don't have my phone in my hand," Lascala said. "I'm not able to put that information out over social media right away, so a lot of it is done off-duty. We've taken this on, and Roger has stepped up to assist me with this."

On the way to emergencies, Lascala said either he or Gosselin will sometimes try to send a quick tweet to followers if there is a certain road the public should avoid or to let followers know why the department has been dispatched. At the same time, Lascala said he and Gosselin are careful to keep their image professional and to avoid violating the privacy of others.

"We want to portray a personality, but at the same time it has to be the right time and the right place," Lascala said. "We never want to make a joke at someone else's expense."

Lascala said the main goal of the department when using social media platforms is to disseminate public safety information. The biggest challenge has been crafting posts that are interesting and helpful to residents, he said. Lascala and Gosselin use national and international public safety accounts as examples to improve their own social media use.

Telling the community about the department's work has been the greatest benefit of social media, Lascala said. Many recent posts include pictures of trainings or explanations as to how firefighters use apparatuses, safety tips or media stories, which involved the department.

"A lot of people will drive by the station, and they'll see the apparatus, or they'll see us training at the park and wonder what's going on," Lascala said. "It's good to put some of our station life out there. Every day is a work day for us. There isn't too much downtime. I think sometimes the perception is that we're waiting around for calls, and that's not the case."

Live-tweeting an emergency

The collapse of a building under construction in Williston in early August turned into a live-tweeted breaking news situation for reporters who rushed to the scene — and also for the Williston Fire Department.

Prescott Nadeau, Williston Fire Department public information officer, was in the middle of a social media class in South Burlington when the alert came through the dispatch app on his iPhone, he recalled Tuesday. As other departments were called to the scene, Nadeau began to post updates to Twitter.

"That was the first example for us of actually having that critical link between the media, the town and other emergency responders as well," Nadeau said.

Since receiving public information officer duties about six months ago, Nadeau said he and Chief Ken Morton have been working to bring the department up to speed with the rules of engagement and to draft an official social media policy. Nadeau has taken several social-media-related classes at the suggestion of Morton.

"We've had a Facebook page for a little while, and we've had a website," Nadeau said. "In the past six months, I think what we realized was social media was becoming the new way."

Like the South Burlington Fire Department — which Nadeau said has been a resource and example of social media usage — much of the posting is done off-duty. Nadeau said, the department is making an effort to post more often to Facebook and Twitter.

"There's so much we've realized we do here that we want other people to know about," he said. "Not like, 'Yay us,' but more about how firefighters don't just sit around and drink coffee all day. We need people to understand that."

Contact Elizabeth Murray at 651-4835 or emurray@freepressmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/LizMurraySMC.